” … If you want to develop one of those guys, you have to give some guys a chance here and there. You know, Indianapolis has a rugby guy (Daniel Adongo). He’s a pass rusher. I know San Francisco brought in a guy that was a shot putter or discus guy (Lawrence Okoye).

“I mean, you’re looking for athletes. It hasn’t been unusual to see basketball guys to the NFL. That’s not just recently. That goes way back, even track guys like Bob Hayes and Renaldo Nehemiah. An athlete is an athlete. There are skills you can develop. If you see something you like, you can work with him.”

But Carlin Isles, the player signed to Detroit’s practice squad this week, grew up in Massillon, Ohio, a town outside of Cleveland known for the quality of its high school football. And while Isles did not play for the well-known Massillon Tigers, he’s hardly new to the sport.

He played at Jackson High, then Ashland University, a Division II school in Ohio. While there, his focus turned to track and at one point he was one of the 40 fastest sprinters in the country. (The Grantland video above does a fine job of taking you through his journey, and makes it clear that, whatever the situation, Isles has a compelling story.)

This is not. Carlin Isles was a football guy playing rugby. He’s not a rugby guy trying football. Isles is coming back to football, perhaps with a better understanding of how to play — plenty about rugby translates — and as a more physically mature man. But he is coming back to a sport he has already played, and not well enough to warrant a run at the highest levels.

All of this is not to say that Isles might not end up being a good football player. That could happen. But it would be a case of an athlete blossoming late, not figuring out how to play a new sport.